Ship Direct – REQUIRED Logistical unit Identifiers
ALL Ship Direct Vendors are required to provide Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) identifiers on every freight piece.
A freight piece can be one single carton or a full pallet load of product shipped direct to the GM Customer. These
identifiers carry carton content data in a UCC-128 barcode format.
SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code)
This is an industry-wide inbound process requiring Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) with unique Serial Shipping Container
Code (SSCC) for every individual freight piece. This unique identifier SSCC must be mentioned in ASN and provided in
both text and barcode form on each individual freight piece. By scanning this SSCC code, shipments can be linked to the
product information available in ASN and all items under shipment can be received into the building without having to scan
each carton on a pallet or within a shipping container.
Each SSCC label should contain the following:
• Each freight piece must have a Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) label in compliance with UCC-128
standards. Refer to www.uc-council.org for further information on UCC standards and implementation.
• A scannable SSCC-18 barcode preceded by the two leading 00s as the application identifier (AI). This application
identifier is available to the supplier to increase the capacity of the Serial Reference. The AI has no defined logic.
When scanned by a barcode scanner the parentheses will be omitted. A sample carton or pallet load label is
shown below.
• The scannable Delivery to Postal Code bar code guideline can be found in the GS1 General Specifications
• Once assigned to a shipping container, an SSCC number shall not be reused to identify another shipping
container for a minimum of 12 months from the time it is shipped.
• The dimensions of the SSCC label are 6” x 4” (HxW).
• The SSCC label should be placed 1” – 2” from the side and the top edges of carton. The label should not be
placed over a carton seam, or in a place where it might become obstructed by tape or another label, rendering it
not scannable. SSCC labels should not be placed on the top of the carton.
• Pallet labels should be placed squarely (not on an angle) on adjacent or opposite sides of the pallet. If the pallet is
wrapped in plastic, the pallet SSCC labels must be placed on the outside of the plastic wrap.
High Level Process:
Sample SSCC Label: